irena_candy (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} irena_candy) wrote,@ 2009-09-26 11:51:00 |
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Today I Hung Pictures
When I went to the hardware store on Thursday, I bought some heavy-duty hollow wall anchors. They have a sharp piercing point, wide threads, and a philips top. You pound them into the wall up to the thread and then turn them the rest of the way in with a philips-head screwdriver. This morning I started hauling pictures out of storage, pictures that I haven't seen in fifteen years.
Two of the pictures I unearthed are a pair of batiks that a friend sent me from Viet Nam when he was stationed over there in the late 1960s. (He wasn't in the military; he was with some organization that tried to help the war victims get their lives back together.) I had them framed about ten years later. One is a geometric abstract in browns and grays, and the other is a kneeling figure in greens and blues. The friend who gave them to me, a well-known science fiction enthusiast, died about three years ago of leukemia and I will think of him when I admire them.
Another of the pictures is a delightful print of three Spanish galleons, presumably Christopher Columbus's fleet, sailing over the edge of the world. I bought it at a decorative arts convention in the early 1980s. It's amusing to realize that it could now pass for an illustration from Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series, because the Diskworld IS flat, with an ocean pouring over the edges.
The largest piece is one that I haven't been able to hang yet. It's called "The White Tower," and is a picture of Saruman's Orthanc, from "The Lord of the Rings." I've got the wall anchor and screw in place, but at 3' x 4' it's too bulky for me to see around it to get the wire over the hanger. It's not heavy, merely awkward. A friend is coming over in a couple of days to take away a mower that isn't working, and I'll ask him to help me get it on the wall. He's 6'4" so it should be a snap for him!
Besides these, I've hung several smaller pictures, including some of my own artwork, and my downstairs now looks much more friendly and "lived in." It soothes my soul.
When I went to the hardware store on Thursday, I bought some heavy-duty hollow wall anchors. They have a sharp piercing point, wide threads, and a philips top. You pound them into the wall up to the thread and then turn them the rest of the way in with a philips-head screwdriver. This morning I started hauling pictures out of storage, pictures that I haven't seen in fifteen years.
Two of the pictures I unearthed are a pair of batiks that a friend sent me from Viet Nam when he was stationed over there in the late 1960s. (He wasn't in the military; he was with some organization that tried to help the war victims get their lives back together.) I had them framed about ten years later. One is a geometric abstract in browns and grays, and the other is a kneeling figure in greens and blues. The friend who gave them to me, a well-known science fiction enthusiast, died about three years ago of leukemia and I will think of him when I admire them.
Another of the pictures is a delightful print of three Spanish galleons, presumably Christopher Columbus's fleet, sailing over the edge of the world. I bought it at a decorative arts convention in the early 1980s. It's amusing to realize that it could now pass for an illustration from Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series, because the Diskworld IS flat, with an ocean pouring over the edges.
The largest piece is one that I haven't been able to hang yet. It's called "The White Tower," and is a picture of Saruman's Orthanc, from "The Lord of the Rings." I've got the wall anchor and screw in place, but at 3' x 4' it's too bulky for me to see around it to get the wire over the hanger. It's not heavy, merely awkward. A friend is coming over in a couple of days to take away a mower that isn't working, and I'll ask him to help me get it on the wall. He's 6'4" so it should be a snap for him!
Besides these, I've hung several smaller pictures, including some of my own artwork, and my downstairs now looks much more friendly and "lived in." It soothes my soul.